Flat tire on haul-out today . . .

[tpenfield]

As I was pulling the boat out for the season today, I noticed the port side front tire on the trailer was flat. Since the trailer is tri-axle, I limped the rig home at about 20 mph. (not far)
.

.
I put the spare on . . . and in doing so, I realized that I need to get some better (more powerful) jacks. I was lifting about half the load (so 6K lbs out of 12K), but I did not want to max-out the main jack. Probably will look for a couple of 4 ton jacks just to have.

Anyway, I swapped out the flat with the spare and checked the original tire for leaks, etc. (soapy water, etc), but did not see any bubbles. I am going to let the tire sit overnight to see if it looses pressure overnight. Not sure what happened . . . as I checked the pressure on all tires yesterday (60 psi).

 

[mike_i]

Did you spray the soapy water on the valve stem too? I had a very slow leak that took a couple of weeks before I saw the tire was low. It turned out to be a very very slow leak from the valve stem.

 

[tphoyt]

I would taken that as a sign to put her back in the water.

 

[airshot]

Even with nails and screws, when you move them, they start leaking....
With all the crap on the road today, surprised we don't have more flats !

 

[tpenfield]

Yes, I'll have another go at it to see if I can find out what is going on. I was not wanting to do the sharp turn down my road with only 2 of 3 wheels. So, I pulled in forward to assess the tire situation.

Tomorrow will be all about turning the trailer around to be backed into the driveway as it does normally.

 

[drewm3i]

I would taken that as a sign to put her back in the water.

This is the answer.

 

[Lou C]

We had a valve stem on the spare tire of our sons Jeep Wrangler dry rot from being in the sun & it only leaked when you wiggled it.

 

[tphoyt]

Yep been there a few times.

 

[tpenfield]

Well, the tire has not lost any pressure in the past 4 hours. Im going the check the pressure tomorrow.

 

[dingbat]

A friend gave one of these to my wife for her horse trailer.
I was skeptical, but it works like a charm
Rated to #15K

 

[flashback]

Looks like you'll be needing some bottom paint, sure is clean though.

 

[airshot]

As long as your going slow, you should have no issues with running on 2 of 3 wheels. No highway speeds, but keeping it under 20 should not cause a problem. When I worked at a marina, we often saw people moving boats on trailers with less than the required number of wheels and never an issue but they took it easy. If your really concerned, move the center wheel forward for better weight balance. For sharp turns, leave as is, or move rear tire forward. Nice looking boat !

 

[Scott Danforth]

Ted, maybe get a few 8 ton bottle jacks from harbor freight

 

[bruceb58]

As long as your going slow, you should have no issues with running on 2 of 3 wheels. No highway speeds, but keeping it under 20 should not cause a problem. When I worked at a marina, we often saw people moving boats on trailers with less than the required number of wheels and never an issue but they took it easy. If your really concerned, move the center wheel forward for better weight balance. For sharp turns, leave as is, or move rear tire forward. Nice looking boat !

Not a chance in hell would I do that. The other 2 tires are likely way overloaded and they will fail next.